Biodiversity declines are ubiquitous (Pimm et al. 1995), will likely continue (Sala etal. 2000), and may lead to subsequent declines in ecosystem functioning and stability(recently reviewed in Naeem et al. 2009). These changes may diminish human wellbeing bydecreasing the services that ecosystems provide for people (Millennium EcosystemAssessment 2005, Worm et al. 2006, Naeem et al. 2009, Sachs et al. 2009). Currentrestoration strategies are unable to fully restore the biodiversity and ecosystem functioningobserved in intact ecosystems (Sluis 2002, Martin et al. 2005, Polley et al. 2005, Benayas et al. 2009), suggesting that ecologists and conservationists have an incomplete understandingof the processes that promote and threaten ecosystem conservation